For a while now people have been talking about who is going to get the Democratic presidential nomination between Sanders and Clinton.
Even back in the beginning when there were five candidates, all anyone was talking about was Sanders and Clinton. Eventually Webb and Chafee dropped out of the race, leaving us with Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley as the remaining three candidates.
Personally, I have felt the Bern long before Sanders was a household name, or at least a well known name in college dormitories, due to his plan to offer cheaper or free college tuition, which would help forgo the need to sell a kidney in order to afford going to college.
Now that the gap has gotten significantly smaller, in regard to polls conducted in Iowa between Sanders and Clinton. Sanders is also pulling ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire polls, drawing more media attention.
It is easy to forget that O’Malley is still campaigning for the nomination. In the last debate hosted by NBC, it seemed that O’Malley took Webb’s position as the candidate who got little to no questions or speaking time.
Last week, however, CNN hosted a town hall debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. For those that do not know what a town hall is, it is an event where the host and the members of the audience ask the candidates questions.
The great thing about a town hall is that all of the candidates get about the same amount of time to take questions and to answer them. I was blown away while watching the forum, especially when O’Malley took the stage.
Even though I follow politics closely, O’Malley’s performance had me thinking, “Who the heck is this new guy running for the Democratic nomination?” Even though I knew about O’Malley and some of his ideas before the public hall, I did not give him much of a thought as a viable candidate, but the O’Malley I saw at the hall changed that.
O’Malley’s performance at the public hall was remarkable. Not only did he seem to be cool, calm and confident, but he also did an outstanding job answering question with specific ideas and plans on how to address the problems facing this country.
O’Malley was magnificent regarding his interactions with the members of the audience, especially in regards to one of the first questions asked, a criticism regarding his get tough on crime approach while being the mayor of Baltimore. O’Malley’s response was perfect, which even seemed to impress the young lady that asked the question.
O’Malley also addressed a lot of the other issues facing this country such as the Black Lives Movement, climate change, Wall Street, the economy, healthcare and yes, making college more affordable so that we do not need to sell our bodily organs.
O’Malley has a lot of great ideas on how to fix the problems we are facing as a nation as well as executive experience from his time as a mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland. It is a shame O’Malley does not get enough attention from the public or that his campaign is not taken seriously by the media.